


Good Enough

by winterhats



Category: Kagerou Project, Mekakucity Actors
Genre: F/M, Gen, Unrequited Love, i promise it's not angsty omg, kano and takane being bros, well i mean it could be worse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-24 02:14:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10732059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterhats/pseuds/winterhats
Summary: He's, from now on, taking more than seriously the task of making himself un-fall in love.(If that was even a thing. If it wasn't, then he was going to make it one).





	Good Enough

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write and my friend gave me the prompt "an one-sided relationship and climbing trees" so... that's what I did. I regret nothing. Except that it's OOC but give me a break, please.

With the orange leaves making noise beneath their feet as they walk, Kano thinks that autumn came around rather quickly.

It's possible it'll go away as fast as it came, like it always does, and that it was probably going to be snowing soon anyway. Sighing, a little exasperated due to the silence that's descended on them, he wonders if it was too lame to comment on the weather.

He decides that it isn't only lame, but really pathetic and he's sure Takane would just laugh if he said that.

"Autumn's showing, huh?"

Kano swallows back a laugh when Takane ends up being the one pointing it out. He tries to choose between a normal answer like "it sure is," or making fun of her.

"What a thrilling conversation topic, babe," he answers, showing her a toothy grin that judging by the face she makes in return, she would like to have punched. "Kidding. I was actually thinking of saying that too."

"Don't call me babe or I might actually punch you, 'kay?" despite he knew there was nothing near babbling in her words, Takane lets herself laugh as she speaks. Kano looks down to his feet and fights thinking literally anything about something such as her smile. Because _that_ was lame.

"Aww what, you don't like that? Then how does your boyfriend call you? I bet he says something like princess."

"That's offensive, since I, clearly, am a queen," Takane says, and he laughs again. Even if he definitely thought she'd yell that Haruka isn't her boyfriend, and then he'd ask how did she know he was referring to Haruka, to which she'd just be embarrassed about. But instead, she just keeps smiling.

He clears his throat, awkwardly. "I kinda want to make you a crown out of little sticks."  
  
"Didn't Jesus have a crown all made of little sticks?"

"What? No. Dude, Jesus had a crown of thorns."

"Well yeah, but weren't they like, sticks with thorns?"

"I have no idea, let's climb a tree."

"What?"

Given to the fact they're in the woods (yes, they came all the way here just riding one bike because, why not) it wasn't an issue to spot a tree, but Kano only comes up with the urge of climbing one when he sees a specifically wavy tree that was practically asking him to do it.

When he sits in the lowest brench that he just had to jump on, he turns to see if Takane was following him. She wasn't, so of course, he says what a good friend would say, "Awww, scared of heights?"

"No, idiot. I've just never climbed a tree before."

"Whaaat? Then, what did you do when you were little?"

"Dunno, I was busy being sick and not liking outdoors."

"Fair enough," he laughs, but seeing that she's only walked a bit closer and seemed to insist to keep her feet in the ground, Kano sighs. "Alright, there's always a first time for everything."

She rolls her eyes, and when she looks back to him, he's reaching his hand out for her. She looks at it hesitantly, and just as he thought she'd _actually_  hold his hand, she just grabs onto the brench and pulls herself up, just the same way he did it.

Now sitting next to him, wearing a smirk he'd like to not love, Takane goes, "Might be my first time, but it's just easy."

"That's because this is an easy tree. Let's see how you hold up if we climb higher," standing up, he realizes it's been way too long since he's done this, and that he shouldn't act so cocky. If he were to fall right now, Takane wouldn't let him forget about it.

"Eh, I pass. If I go higher I might actually fall and no thanks. You can do that without me," the breeze's moving her hair in a way he'd also like to not love. God, how he wishes he could just hate her face. "I don't want to get any more injuries today."

"If you're talking about me crashing the bike in the way here, that was your fault for making me laugh."

"It's your own fault that you're like a twelve year old and laugh at the word dick."

Conveniently, he just laughs again, trying to keep his balance, "Hibiya-kun's twelve and he doesn't find it funny."

"Is that suppossed to be your defense?" she asks. "That kid's like a sixty year old in a tiny body. Besides, isn't he thirteen already?"

"Oh, right, he is."

"He's a grown man now."

"Gonna be robbing banks and growing a beard soon."

When she bursts into laughter, Kano forces himself to focus his gaze on the ground far away from him. He'd rather lose his balance by doing that than thinking her laugh's nice.

He dares to look at her again and she's also staring into nothing. He knows her enough to ask, "Whatcha doing? Trying to set the woods on fire with your eyes?"

"I'm a queen with fire powers, so yeah," she lets out another laugh, but it sounds weak. Takane just shakes her head, "Nah, I was just thinking."

"About?"

"Stuff."

"Stuff being, Haruka?"

Since he insists on standing up, he can't really see her expression once she looks down, but he just knows she made the kind of face that could as well be the sentence "how did he know?"

"Well, yeah, you got me," it's not like it was hard to guess, anyway. At this point, Kano just considers it a thing Takane does; to space out to think about Haruka. After all, she used to do it too back then, at school, when he'd speak to her disguised as his sister.

Seeing this as a chance to finally sit down, Kano does so as he says, "Alright, shoot. What's been troubling you?"

Last time he asked that to someone, it was to Kido. She rolled her eyes and asked why did he care, so Kano could only bring himself to say he didn't know instead of saying it was because he cares about her. Just how much of a jerk has he been, to the point his own sister has to ask him why did he care what's troubling her? It was just sad.

But Takane doesn't ask that; and that's why sometimes, Kano allows himself to accept the way he thinks about her. Because she doesn't ask why and tells him things like "talk about it when you're comfortable." His siblings have given up on him in that matter, and he can't blame them. He's been laughing everything off pretty much their entire lives.

Takane, instead, just appeared in a moment where he was willing to make a change.

"It's just... he's literally done nothing wrong," she eventually says. "I mean don't get me wrong, it's not like any of us did anything to ever deserve all this bullshit, but Haruka– dunno man, it costed him his memories and he can't even walk. It just... sucks."

He wasn't so sure of what to say; it's just unfair and the feeling of impotence doesn't exactly give you a lot to make someone feel better. Takane smiles gloomily, because he's listening and that's what she probably needs. She listens to him a lot, so Kano gives some sort of smile back.

"I'd give up my body and come back to haunt Shintaro's ass if it meant Haruka could walk."

He laughs again, "You loved being the amazing and super cute cyber girl Ene though."  
  
"Well, it was pretty rad, yeah," Takane stares at her legs swinging in the air and sighs, "But I did miss a ton of things. I mean if I was still stuck in a phone I couldn't be climbing trees with you today, right?"

He feels _disgusting_. A kind of disgusting that's new to him but he still knows, and he hates it. He hates the fact he thinks he might be blushing. What kind of horrible fate was this, to fall in love with _this girl_  of all people? With his sister's best friend. With his sister's other best friend's pretty-much-girlfriend.

Takane doesn't seem to notice; or perhaps she's nice enough to not say anything and pretend. He'd believe that's a possibility if he wasn't quite himself, because if there's something he's good at, that's hiding and lying.

"I just wish I could climb trees with him too."

Plus, she was way too distracted thinking about Haruka.

Sighing, and trying to push his lame feelings at the back of his mind until he can no longer feel them (he fails), Kano stands up on the brench again, "Well, if you ask me, that skeleton boy doesn't seem like the type who would climb a tree."

"Hey, leave him alone. He's all self-conscious about being a skeleton boy."

"You probably saw him naked. Is it creepy? Like, can you see his ribs and all?"

"I am going to end up punching you in the face."

"Great! Well, in other news: let's jump on this brench together until it breaks down and we fall."

"I think the neurons you had left died for good after you crashed the bike," Takane reiterates and Kano resists the urge to tell her again that was her fault and not his. She sighs, and looks up at him, " _Why_  would we do that?"

"Why not?"

"Uh, because we'll fucking hurt ourselves?" she still manages a giggle. "And I remember saying I don't want to get hurt. Haruka will get super annoying if he sees I have a broken something because I jumped off a tree with you."

"Oh, c'mon! We probably won't get anything broken! It's gonna be fun!" as a way of showing fun, he starts to attempt a jump and in consequence, the brench starts to tremble under them. "Seeee? Good fun!"

"Kano, _I swear to god_  if you don't stop that I'll–"

Which was meant to be only a joke to freak her out, ends up in the brench _actually_  breaking. He only has time to gasp when he hears the tiny sound of surprise Takane makes as they, well, fall.

They hit the ground in less than three seconds, given to the fact they weren't even that far away from it in the first place. Orange and yellow leaves fly around them after their impact, as Kano dares to look at Takane. She's muttering curses under her breath, so that meant she wasn't seriously injured, at least.

"Uh, you okay?"

"Ugh– yeah, I'm pretty sure nothing's broken," as she lies on her back and doesn't seem to show any signs of getting up, Takane brings a hand to her forehead, exasperated. "There's no bleeding, either. And if there is then it's just internal. Which is good news because cleaning up wounds sucks."

"Yeah, it's the worst."

Takane agrees with a tiny boo before going at the thing he thought was already taking long, "I can't even begin to ask how are you so stupid. I don't know if I'm more stupid though; I should've ran away when you asked me to come to the woods with you for no reason."

"No reason? I made you come so you'd see the beauty of falling off a tree."

"You're stupid."

He smiles to himself and mutters a small "thanks" that she probably didn't hear. He steals a glance at her, and once again feeling like an idiot, he tries to force himself to think about anything that's not Takane. Like, how far away are they from Mary's old place, or how long until night falls, or the fact that it wasn't his fault he crashed the bike earlier.

Kano laughs at the last thought; it reminds him of Takane being angry about him blaming her. He wipes off his own smile after he notices how quickly his mind drove itself back to her.

Because in the end, he's accepted he had a crush. And then he proceeds on trusting it'll go away with time; since he's simply been hanging out with someone nice and funny, a girl who happens to be a good person with the same sense of humor as him. Of course he'd develop some crush. One of those passing things that eventually go away so he can laugh at it in the future, hell, even tell Takane about it so they can laugh together.

Except time passed and it didn't go away, and she smells so nice, and her voice cursing and the way she smiles when she shoots someone's head off in a game made him feel sick. Which can only convince him this wasn't really just a crush.

"Hey, so," he starts, and it sounds way more awkward than he'd like. It's infuriating that he gets all stupid around her. "You and Haruka dating yet? Haven't heard you yell that he isn't your boyfriend in like, days, and I think that says something."

"Uh," she sounds way more awkward though. "Errr, dunno. Kinda?"

Laughing, Kano insists, "You're _kinda_  dating him?"  
  
_Sounds about right, being you two._  
  
"Look, it's complicated! Romance isn't exactly the top thing in my head," he feels a little bad after he notices she might be upset about it. "He's like– super fucked up. You have no idea. He wakes up almost every single night having a goddamn _panic attack_."

"A _what_? Dude, aren't we talking about the guy who gives drawings of flowers to people?"

"I know, right?" sitting up, Takane brushes the dirt off her hair. Kano does the same, and hesitantly brushes a few leaves stuck in her back. She doesn't seem to mind. "...He talks in his sleep and it literally terrifies me. He says stuff about Hibiya and Hiyori, about them... dying, over and over and, and stuff– or about timelines? I don't know man, it's super creepy. I think he's got some of the ugly memories somewhere in his head."

"...Okay, so I wasn't expecting that," he tries to sound humorous, but when Takane turns her head to him and he sees the utter concern written on her face, he erases his smile. Just by that look, he knows she hasn't talked about this with anyone; probably not even Haruka. "And– uh, what does Haruka... you know, what's with him? Aside from following you everywhere you go to the point of waiting for you outside the bathroom."

"That was _one time_ , let it go," Kano feels proud of himself when she giggles. "To be honest, I don't know. He just tells me that when he's with me he feels, um, safe?"

"Well, that's sappy."

"Shut up," she shakes her head. "So there's that. I'm putting on hold the whole, uh, dating stuff. I do know he likes me so that's why I said kinda."

He takes a breath. It was probably more than just dumb to ask this, but Kano dares to, anyway. Because he didn't give himself time to think it over,  
  
_It doesn't make any sense. Why am I asking?_

"And... do _you_ like him?"

"I love him."

The lack of hesitation and the way that answer was so immediate leaves a strange tightness in his stomach. He just really, really hates himself.

He's never thought about telling Takane his feelings; if she knew, they couldn't be friends anymore. At least not without awkward, short chats and long silences. And only when he was feeling like utter garbage would he allow himself to imagine a world in which Takane actually felt the same way.

But he didn't even _want_  that. Because Haruka and her deserved everything they finally had (or at least, the chance they've got to fight for everything they deserve and don't have yet) and he would rather die than come in between them, even if he was in another universe where he had a chance with her.

He wonders if this is the punishment for having been a jerk all his life. For having shut out of his life his own siblings, for having refused to let go of his older sister's death. For preventing his siblings to let go of it.

"D'aaaaaaaw! They grow up so fast~"

"I'm older than you," she sighs, but a snicker makes its way out. She's suddenly up, trying to wipe the dirt off her clothes, and turns to him again, "Well, anyway. This outdoors experience was average. Let's head back already."

"We've been here for, what, half an hour?" Kano grins. Takane raises an eyebrow that reminded him they didn't bring any food or water and coming here was just a bad idea overall. Well, she did call it average, so that works for him. "I get it, I get it~ Let's go."

He hears her complain about him taking too long to get up, and before he can do anything, Takane's reaching her hand to him. She's still making the same face that said "you're dumb" and she was also still saying things about him being slow, but he can't bring himself to move.

It's not the first time he thinks she looks pretty, and he hates that it isn't even the second time. This sucks, she sucks, Haruka sucks, and his feelings suck.

Of course he'd just fall for the first person he dares to call a best friend.

"Dude, you gonna get up or what?"

Automatically, he just takes her hand and accepts her help getting up, although he accidentally grabbed her wrist instead and he almost makes her fall again. Takane complains, of course, but when she sees that it was only an accident and he's not even commenting on it, she goes,

"...You okay?"

"I, um–"

He clears his throat, and stares. Takane's expression immediately changes into concern, and Kano swallows a bit.

_I like you?_

_I think no one's better than you at videogames?_

_...I love you?_

"I, errr–"

"...You what?"  
  
_No, no, no, no, no._  
  
_Please, just don't._

"...Nah, it's nothing, let's go back."

Of course she looks confused, but she complies with a smile. Kano's not sure if he should celebrate he didn't give in and said something stupid or if he should just wonder, again, how does he manage to be such a screw up. He's, from now on, taking more than seriously the task of making himself un-fall in love.

"Just so you know, though," Takane comes back to him, the worry still evident in her face. "You can always talk to me about anything. You know I'll listen. Just do it when you're comfortable, 'kay?"

...Why does she have to make it so hard, though?


End file.
